The oxidation of aldehydes to acids is of broad synthetic and industrial interest, with brassylic acid and azelaic acid production from vegetable oils requiring this transformation (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,565), as well as maleic acid production from crotonaldehyde. This latter transformation requires the reaction to be at very high temperatures in the gaseous phase.
Fine chemical and commodity chemical production methods that incorporate oxidization of aldehydes have lacked a certain amount of safety, are expensive, are relatively inefficient and lack a desirable purity profile. Consequently there is a need for an inexpensive, efficient, and safe method to oxidize aldehydes on any type of production scale.